In the field of computer graphics, the term resource is used to refer to an area in memory that can be accessed by the rendering pipeline. In order for the pipeline to access memory efficiently, data that is provided to the pipeline (such as input geometry, shader resources, textures etc) is stored in a resource.
Furthermore, because more than one pipeline stage may need access to the same resource, the concept of a resource view is introduced. A resource view identifies the portion of a resource that can be accessed. In particular, a resource view allows a pipeline stage to access only the sub-resources it needs, in a representation desired by an application program.
Often, resource views (also referred to as view objects) include multiple dimensions of data. In one example, a view object can include a X-axis dimension, a Y-axis dimension, a Z-axis dimension, a MIP-map dimension, and a temporal dimension. Unfortunately, this abundance of information can render it difficult for software developers (e.g., game developers) to visualize the various dimensions of a view object of an application program in a meaningful way. As a result, it may be difficult for software developers to debug or optimize the application program efficiently.